NEW YORK — NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski does not mince words when discussing the potential of additive manufacturing technology, or 3D printing.
“Everyone’s lost sight of what’s going on right here, and it’s going to change the world dramatically in a very quick time,” Keselowski told SportTechie. “It’s going to touch people’s lives in so many different ways — some they know, some they don’t.”
Additive already has made inroads in auto racing. Keselowski says he’s raced with 3D-printed parts in his car, although he won’t elaborate on specifics, citing the need to maintain a competitive advantage. Plastic 3D-printed components have been in use for a decade, and Keselowski had metal parts in his vehicle last year. He expects additive manufacturing to revamp engines, improving power and efficiency.
Key uses in motorsports include the quick construction of prototypes and in developing aerodynamic models to identify inefficiencies. 3D printing can produce “very precise parts that can be available very quickly without tooling costs,” Keselowski says.
He has been outspoken about the manufacturing discrepancies in NASCAR. In particular, he has said Toyota is ahead of the pack, a group that includes Monster Energy Cup champion Martin Truex Jr., the driver for the Furniture Row Racing team that is in a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.
“I would say that the team that won the championship last year won the championship because of their manufacturing prowess, which included additive technology,” said Keselowski, who drives Team Penske’s No. 2 Ford and won the 2012 Cup championship.
As part of a daylong event dedicated to 3D printing hosted by General Electric in New York yesterday, Keselowski appeared on a panel about the technology’s application to the automotive industry along with GE’s chief manufacturing engineer for additive, Ron Daul, and the head of BMW’s additive manufacturing center, Dominik Rietzel. BMW, which recently announced a €10 million ($12 million) investment in a new Additive Manufacturing Campus, has been using 3D-printed parts in the company’s M4 DTM race car.
“Cycle time is everything,” Daul said during the panel, talking about additive’s speed while adding that the technique’s precision eliminates the “corruption of variation.”
Also on display at the GE event were an Adidas Futurecraft 4D shoe featuring a 3D-printed midsole, experimental 3D-printed golf club driver heads, and 3D-printed bicycle and skateboard parts.
Keselowski began learning about additive manufacturing a year ago on the recommendation of a friend, and was impressed be what he discovered. He believes there’s a disconnect between the technology’s transformative power to reinvent manufacturing and the amount of attention being paid to the industry.
Keselowski sees far broader implications for additive than just motorsports, predicting that its use will help improve fuel efficiency, be the technology that enables mankind to set foot on Mars, enable safer operations of nuclear power plants, and reduce gigantic amounts of manufacturing waste. He grew up near Detroit and says he’s seen firsthand the problems of waste. “Anything we can do to reduce that is not just prudent to the business model,” Keselowski says, “it’s prudent to our responsibility as citizens on this planet.”
“It’s going to completely disrupt the manufacturing landscape,” he adds. “Manufacturing, by nature, isn’t sexy. But manufacturing in general is a big part of the economy in a lot of ways. It’s a big part of sports. It’s a big part of automotive. It enables our lives. I can’t think of a single manufacturing industry that this won’t touch in some way.”
Wall Street, however, has been too slow to embrace additive manufacturing, Keselowski says, because that will require a large-scale capital investment with long-term dividends. He’s ready to sink some of his own earnings into the field, though, believing it will “win the century.”
“Additive is going to win the long game,” he said, “and it’s going to win big.”
GE has acquired a few companies in the additive space (such as Arcam, GeonX and Concept Laser) and started a few of its own brands in parallel to create a diverse portfolio. The company is reported to have invested more than $3 billion in the business, and former CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, has previously written that the company went “all in” on additive. John Flannery, Immelt’s, successor reiterated that vision on Thursday.
“People are in the very, very beginning stage of understanding the potential,” Flannery said, explaining that the potential of the technology is huge. “Design without limitations. 3D printing isn’t just a new way to make what you already have.”
